Childbearing history and late-life mortality: The Dubbo study of Australian elderly

Leon A. Simons*, Judith Simons, Yechiel Friedlander, John Mccallum

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: to examine the association of parity with mortality in later life. Design: a longitudinal, community-based study. Setting: semi-rural town of Dubbo, NSW, Australia.Subjects: a total of 1,571 women and 1,233 men 60 years and older first examined in 1988-89.Outcome measures: all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates analysed over 16-year follow-up. Hazard ratios obtained from proportional hazards models employing conventional predictors, potential confounders and measure of parity. Results: increasing parity in women was weakly associated with overweight, diabetes and hypertension. All-cause mortality fell progressively with increasing parity in women (hazard ratio and 95% confidence intervals): childless, 1.00; 1 child, 1.03 (0.75-1.43); 2 children, 0.83 (0.61-1.11); 3 children, 0.80 (0.60-1.08); 4 children, 0.91 (0.66-1.25); 5 children, 0.70 (0.49-1.01); 6+ children, 0.60 (0.43-0.85) (trend for parity P < 0.002). This result was similar whether or not hypertension, diabetes and overweight were included in multivariate models adjusting for social variables and other confounders. The reduction in all-cause mortality was accompanied by a parallel reduction in deaths from cancer and respiratory conditions, while coronary heart disease mortality increased 60-111% in all parous women.Conclusion: there was increased all-cause mortality in later life in childless women, accompanied by reduced mortality as parity increased. Underlying mechanisms are unclear but findings may have public health importance.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberafs016
Pages (from-to)523-528
Number of pages6
JournalAge and Ageing
Volume41
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Childbearing
  • Cohort study
  • Later-life mortality
  • Parity

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